Justin
(Justin)
Tech nerd from Sweden
Western Europe does not have a monopoly on democracy and did not invent it, nor is Eastern Europe destined to restart 300 more years of Russian empire. Human rights and political progress does not care about geography.
Western countries like Spain and Germany were dictatorships for the majority of the 20th century and countries like Poland and Finland were democratic republics for large parts of the 20th century.
I think it’s closed-minded to think of democracy as a western thing, and Russian imperialism as an Eastern thing, and it contributes to the political divide between the EU and its neighbors RU, BY, UA, MD, and GE.
I mean that the term refers to regions that were formerly USSR/Warsaw Pact/communist for up to 50-80 years in the 20th century. What does Estonia have in common with Slovenia? What does Poland have in common with Georgia? The Baltics, Central Europe, Balkans, Caucuses, Black Sea, Karelia, Dnieper/Kiev region, Volga/Moscow region, and the Urals are all distinct regions with distinct history and culture that shouldn’t be lumped together as “Eastern Europe”
Western Europe has commonalities like germanic/romance languages, feudalism, lasting French/German/British empires, and the origins of the EU, which can’t be said for Eastern. It may even be more accurate to describe Western Europe as Scandinavian, West Germanic, French, Mediterranean, and British Islands. Either way, dividing Europe into an arbitrary East/West is just chauvinist neo-colonialism by Western Europe, where the countries of the EU project are treating the eastern frontier as a poorer, less developed “other”. The EU project is meant to unite all Europeans as equals in democracy, and alienating former communist countries undermines that.
Video essay on the subject:
Sweden up until recently had freedom of organization protected in the constitution. This was changed in a recent constitutional amendment at the request of Turkey, as a prerequisite to join NATO. Turkey demanded that Sweden arrest “PKK members” (aka journalists that Erdogan doesn’t like), and to show support, both the Andersson and Kristersson administrations revived a constitutional amendment from 2021 and pushed it through, making it illegal to be a member of a terrorist organization.
https://www.regeringen.se/rattsliga-dokument/statens-offentliga-utredningar/2021/03/sou-202115/
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/220628-trilat-memo.pdf
It’s really an unfortunate development, since the terms “terrorist organization” and “support to terrorism” is so poorly defined, and it’s clearly intended to punish political opposition in dictatorships, like Turkish and Kurdish opposition in Turkey. Very much a chilling effect on political discussion when foreign political oppositions are banned from speaking in Sweden, even when racist hate groups are still allowed to speak.
It does seem that the current law is still quite limited, at least. The Terrorist crime law of 2022 (Terroristbrottslagen) outlaws support, propagandizing, and recruiting for terrorist organizations, but this seems to be limited to only material support, organized propaganda and organization leadership. Simply going around waving a PKK flag still is legal, for now.
So luckily, I don’t think it’s possible to be deported simply for expressing expressing pro-Kurdish or pro-Palestinian independence ideas, or even expressing support for the violent people in PKK or Hamas.
Johan Forssell has also expressed a wish for a new law making it illegal to be in a criminal gang, but this has not passed yet. His view on the ongoing wars with Israel seems to be that Israel “has a right to defend itself”, but that civilians must be protected and receive aid.
Saying AIPAC is the deep state isn’t a good look. Campaign finance is a problem, but AIPAC is tiny compared to some of the Super PACs out there.
I don’t think state dept/DoD employees are that political. I could understand the CIA having more influence there, but this article just said that CIA employees blocked Trump from couping Venezuela.
Both the US and EU have sanctioned Venezuela after they arrested opposition leaders on political charges and disqualified Machado from running in this year’s election. This was signed by Bradley T. Smith, who I believe was appointed by Janet Yellen last year. Doesn’t sound like a deep state to me. Do dictator shit, get dictator sanctions.
January 6th will be fun
lmao no, Biden isn’t going to block the National Guard from arresting everyone if people try to attempt a coup again. Enjoy your night in military jail waiting to be handed to the feds.
that fox News video “win every swing state” is from July